Celebrating Philippine Independence Day

Today marks the 118th anniversary of Philippine Independence Day. On June 12, 1898, the revolutionary armies of the Philippines, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the armies and first president of the Philippines, declared the Philippine's independence from Spain.

Northern California has such a large Filipino community, so it's a given that there would be Independence Day celebrations in the area. It has been a while since I've been to one of them, so I decided to take the family up to San Francisco to participate. Other than occasional trips to Goldilocks and Asian groceries for Filipino meals and snacks, I don't live the Filipino lifestyle that much. The kids are always eager for a chance to chow down on lumpia and pork barbecue, so they happily came along.

Del Monte Plantation, Philippines: home of the sweetest pineapples in the world

For last week's Travel Tuesday post, I salivated over the best chocolate on earth.  This week I'm traveling to the other side of the world to blog about a different kind of sweet treat: pineapples from the Del Monte Plantation in the Philippines.  Buying a pineapple in the US always a bit of a hit-and-miss venture; sometimes you'll end up with a sweet one, other times you'll end up with a fruit so tart it makes your face pucker.  I know many people who don't bother with fresh pineapples; they're too much trouble and too iffy -- but the pineapples we tasted on the Dole plantation were so good, I would have ripped the sharp rind off the fruit to get to that sweet, sweet flesh.

The Del Monte Plantation is located in the southern region of the Philippines, in the Bukidnon province.  The nearest big city is Cagayan de Oro (when I say "big", it's all relative: CDO's population is about 600,000).  We spent a few days in Cagayan de Oro in 2012 for a cousin's wedding, so my brother-in-law arranged a tour of the plantation with a cousin of his who works there.

How Typhoon Haiyan affects us

photo credit: CAFOD on Flickr

In the Philippines, typhoons are a way of life.  Every June, classes started.  Every June, the rains came.  Every June, my classmates and I would start hoping for typhoons.  We were too young to understand the implications.  Rain just meant relief from the scorching summer heat (frankly, I don't know any Filipino who doesn't love hearing the sound of raindrops falling on the roof, and every kid I know loved standing outside and taking a shower in the rain).  Rain meant the chance to skip school.  Midwestern US schoolchildren have their snow days, Manila schoolchildren have Typhoon Signal #2.  Signal #1 was always met with groans because we still had to go to school (and possibly had to face some flooding along the way).  Signal #2 was great, because we got to stay home for the day.  Signal #3 was even better because it meant school would be out for several days.  Like I said, we were just kids.

Only in the Philippines: Filipino sentenced to prison for offending religious feelings

photo courtesy of Carlos Celdran's Facebook page

For about a month now, I have been planning to write a post entitled "Only in the Philippines".  It was supposed to be a semi-satirical post, gently mocking some of the crazy stuff that you see in the Philippines.  For example....

Only in the Philippines do travelers pack their belongings in gigantic cardboard boxes instead of suitcases (a 20x20x20 box can fit the most bulky items and still stay within the linear-inch luggage requirement of most international flights).

Air Manny?

What does Manny Pacquiao have in common with Michael Jordan, Michael Johnson, Charles Barkley, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams?  Yes, they're all top athletes and they are (or were) the best at what they do, but they are (or in Lance Armstrong's case, used to be) Nike endorsers. Nike signed Pacquiao back in 2006, but I had never actually seen Manny Pacquiao apparel in stores until today.

Vote for Efren, a CNN Hero!

Have your heard of CNN Heroes? Every year, CNN gives $100,000 to the winner (from a field of ten finalists---winnowed from 9,000 nominees from all over the world) of its "Hero of the Year" award. This year, a 28-year-old Filipino, Efren Peñaflorida, made it to the top ten. (A panel of 12 well-known personalities from various fields picked the finalists. Colin Powell was among the judges this year). If Efren wins this year's award (based on how many votes he gets, which will depend on us), he will be able to expand his mobile school program, Dynamic Teen Company, for the children of the slums in the Philippines. What this young man is doing to improve the lives of the kids in the slums is truly inspiring, and I think his efforts are worth my vote.


Voting is open between now and Nov. 19, and it takes less than a minute to click a button to cast your vote. The more votes Efren gets, the greater his chances of winning the "Hero of the Year" award and the $100K. Let's all vote for Efren and help him continue to make a difference in those slum kids' lives! Please don't forget to pass this on to everybody you know---Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike----so more people can vote for this young man with an extra big heart.

Filipinos and Food: No Reservations

I finally got around to watching the Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations: Philippines episode that has been lying in my DVR for weeks. I knew it was going to be a good show when I saw Anthony Bourdain and Ivan Dy dipping fishballs from a Chinatown street vender into a jar of chili sauce. And when he dug his spoon into a goat stew at a roadside "kambingan" ("place that serves goat"), I was so envious. The soupbowl still had the entire goat's head in it, complete with skullbones, tongue, brains, eyeballs. I wished I were the one sucking the eyeball, not Anthony. I know it sounds disgusting but it's not -- trust me, you haven't lived until you've tasted that rich, meaty flavor!

Okay, that was a lame attempt at an April Fool's Day joke. You know I'm right of center when it comes to food. It sounds disgusting and it is (at least I think so). That goat stuff belonged on the other show I watched featuring Filipino cuisine (Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods); this one featured mostly mainstream dishes. I actually did watch most of the show wishing I had a plate of whatever they were eating in front of me. Alfie and I were literally salivating over the sizzling sisig (chopped pig's ear -- it tastes waaay better than it sounds) and lechon (roast suckling pig, which Bourdain proclaimed the Best Pig Ever).

My final thoughts at the end of the show: I want sisig.
Alfie's final thoughts: I think I get it now. Food is to Filipinos what Tea is to the English!

Read more of my thoughts on the episode on my Filipina Moms post.

Who Remembers Daimos?

Two weeks ago we returned from a month-long trip to England. For a whole month, we were so completely immersed in the English culture that my kids sprouted English accents (Mummy, could I have some biscuits please?) and became fans of long-running English cartoons such as Postman Pat and Andy Pandy.

Alfie, of course, could not be more delighted. Having landed squarely into middle age he has gone all nostalgic, reminiscing about the good old days and reliving all his childhood TV shows. He has introduced the kids to his boyhood favorite, the Thunderbirds, and they took to it so quickly that we've already bought the Best of Thunderbirds DVD . All this has stirred up some nostalgia of my own. Memories of the cartoons I watched as a kid in the 70's have been swirling around in my mind, and all of a sudden I miss them.

I miss the Flintstones. I miss Penelope Pitstop. I miss I miss Sigmund the Sea Monster, Flipper, the Land of the Lost. But most of all, I miss the Japanese anime shows. Remember those? If you grew up in the Philippines in the 70's of course you do. Everyone I knew was hooked on one type of Japanese anime show or another. All the girls tried to draw the heroines and all the boys wanted the robot toys for Christmas.

For girls, there was Candy Candy and RonRon the Flower Girl. For boys, there was Daimos, Voltes V (read "five"), Mazinger Z (read "zee"), Grendizer and Mekanda Robot. Actually, even the robot series appealed to girls because of the the soap opera stories woven throughout the plotline (Remember the Voltes V Armstrong boys' search for their missing father? who turned out to be one of the enemy Bozanians? Who can forget Daimos' touching Romeo-and-Juliet love story and the way they kept screaming to the heavens: RICHARD!!! ........ ERIKAAAAA!!). My hands-on favorites were Daimos and Voltes V. They had interesting plotlines, the best transforming robots, handsome heroes and strong female characters (note to Mazinger Z: if you're going to attract the feminist audience, then please give the female robot Aphrodite A some weaponry other than those boob missiles).

We were absolutely outraged when Ferdinand Marcos pulled all the robot cartoons off the air, citing exposure to violence as the reason (I guess he didn't want any dissidents getting ideas....). Luckily my uncle had the foresight to videotape a good number of epidodes (and the money to buy a Sony Betamax), so I spent a good part of the 80's comfortably ensconced in an airconditioned room with my cousins, watching tape after tape of Daimos and Voltes V. That's why I will be able to hum the Voltes V theme song as long as I live.... Da dumdum da-dummm..... DUM--DUM...

And of course, the unforgettable phrases:

Let's... Volt... In!!!!

Laser... Sword!!

Vooooollll...tesss... Five-Ah!!

But I grew up and moved on, and didn't give it a thought until this summer, when it all came back. I'll admit, when I saw my kids enjoying Thunderbirds, I got a bit jealous. Why should they be watching poorly-filmed, freaky-eyed puppets when they could watch the beautiful classic anime sketches of Voltes V? Voltes versus Thunderbirds? Ha! The Armstrong Family beats the Tracy family anytime. Thunderbirds 1 thru 5 are no match for the Voltes Cruiser, Bomber, Panzer, Frigate and Lander -- plus they volt in.

But there's one way that Thunderbirds beats Voltes -- they've got DVD's available on Amazon. And now that Alfie has gotten his Thunderbird fix, I want mine too. Tracking down a copy of Voltes V or Daimos or any 70's anime show aired in the Philippines has been much harder than I thought. For one thing, many shows like Voltes V and Daimos were dubbed into English especially for the Philippine market; I was shocked to discover that all those "American"-sounding voices were actually Filipino voice-overs (so sue me -- I was only seven!). So English copies would be extremely rare, if they exist at all. Due to a series of lawsuits over copyrights, it is unlikely that Candy Candy will ever be released in English again. And a Google search for "Ron Ron the Flower Angel" returns no relevant results whatsoever.

I guess I'll have to make a trip to Manila and go deep into the bowels of Divisoria or Quiapo and search for a poor-quality, overpriced VCD of my favorite childhood TV shows. And I'll be delirious with happiness when I find it. In the meantime, thank God for YouTube....

** Cross-posted on the Filipina Moms Blog

Clouds

For this week's Photo Hunter's theme, I'm digging into my Philippine travel archives for the second time in a row, for two reasons: first, I'm away from home and had to schedule this post in advance, and second, because it's one of the best (and only) photos of clouds I have. This is a photo of the sun setting over Taal Lake.

For more clouds, click here.

Let's Party!

The last party we held was to celebrate 3Po and CleanBoy's 4th birthday. The game the kids are playing is pabitin, a popular Filipino party game. Basically, toys and candies are tied to a wooden frame, which is suspended from up high (note: our pabitin is a bit sparse; it really ought to look like this...).

The frame is raised and lowered so that kids have to JUMP to get their prizes. Usually the grownup holding the rope pulls it up and down, juuust out of their range, just to tease the kids a little bit -- until one of the kids manages to get a hold of the frame, then everyone DRAGS the whole thing down and the frenzy ensues. I think it's a great idea for any kids' party, Filipino or not.

This week's Photo Hunters theme is party. For more parties, click here.